I was very nervous to try this blend because of the “Decaf” – I’ve had some really good Decaf teas and some REALLYBAD decaf teas so I didn’t know how this one would rate.

But, you know what, I TRIED to see if I could taste the “decaf” – but the truth was, I couldn’t! This was actually BETTER than the regular Chocolate cheesecake chai because the flavors of the spice, chocolate AND cheesecake emerged stronger in the decaf than they did in the regular.

And so I am here, pleasantly surprised by this tea. It is especially yummy as a latte.

I really like this – I was a little worried after reading my SororiTEA Sister’s tasting note on this tea, but, it is good.

This tea is very light in flavor, but everything is in good balance. The ginger is not overpowering, it is warm and gentle. The Mango is soft and sweet. The green tea tastes light and refreshing. These flavors come together in one cup in a very subtle way, all notes well represented while none overwhelming the others.

The aroma of the dry leaf is BERGAMOT, a perfume-y bergamot… the aroma of the liquor is considerably softer and not at all perfume-ish though. The flavor is very crisp and clean. Smooth! A very nice citrus note, very little of the flowery notes that accompanies Earl Grey sometimes. A very good Earl Grey.

Preparation

More playing around with my tea from Zoomdweebies… this time, I took my blend of Praline’d Pecan tea (half Praline & half Pecan) and combined that with the apple pie black tea, also from Zoomdweebies. Combined these at a ratio of 1:1.

Delicious. Makes me want a slice of apple pie topped with Pralines & Cream ice cream. This I think is better than the apple pie tea on it’s own. The flavor is somehow smoother. Yummy!

In my sample pouch, I didn’t see any chocolate chips at all. I realize that the chocolate chips don’t really add all that much flavor to the overall cup, but I am just mentioning this because the tisane that I measured into my smart brewer didn’t look at all like the photo… it looked like plain rooibos.

The flavor is very delicate here. Rum is the most prominent flavor, and fortunately, it does mask some of the woodsy flavor of the rooibos. I was a little worried about that because when I first strained the tea into my mug I could smell that very distinct rooibos smell and I worried that this would taste strongly of rooibos, but it does not.

The chocolate is softer than I’d like it to be, but I think it’s very well balanced with the rum flavor… neither is really overwhelming the other. I do get a nice chocolatey taste in the finish.

Preparation

As a hot tea, this has too much hibiscus in it and it is really too tart for me. I then tried it iced. As it cools it’s a little bit better… but not a lot better.

I can taste the hibiscus – it’s tart. I can taste the fruit flavors of orange and lemon, they are sweet but a lot of that is masked by the tart of the hibiscus (the hibiscus also makes this kind of syrupy). I can also taste an underlying note of peppermint, and that is – in my opinion – the best part about this particular blend is the mint and the way it kind of peeks its way through the other flavors. Unfortunately, this is too funky for my taste buds… it’s just not for me.

Preparation

I really like this Earl Grey – I like the combination of the citrus with the bergamot citrus… it makes the flavor lighter and more fruity, while curbing some of the purfume-y notes from the bergamot. Nice.

The Assam is lighter than a typical Assam too, and I am attributing that to the citrus… it seems to give the overall cup a nice lighter flavor. The Assam is still malty, astringent, and bold… just not quite as strong as an unflavored Assam would be.

The aroma of fruit (apricot!) and a hint of spice greeted me when I opened the package. I don’t know that there is actually any spices in this blend, but, my nose detected a faint note of spice.

This is a very nice combination of apricot and passion fruit. Pleasantly sweet, only faintly tart (which is quite alright with me). I’m not getting any significant amount of spice flavor so I will attribute the spice note that I’m getting to be part of the black tea base. There is some astringency – not a heavily drying astringency, but it does seem to cleanse the palate because there is very little aftertaste.

I’ll still be posting occasional reviews on teas here on Steepster, mostly backlogged reviews because I’m way behind on getting reviews posted. That’s why I’m keeping two accounts active at the current time – so that I can get those backlogged reviews posted.

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My favorite teas are Yellow Teas with most Oolong teas at a close second. As far as “flavored” teas go, I love Earl Grey, Chocolate and Jasmine teas.

I also am intrigued by flavored teas with an unusual or unique flavor combination, which is why I was very excited to be the Mad Tea Artist of 52Teas!